The vacations are your justification to cover items with glitter, split the crimson satin and green tartan ribbons, and camouflage every object in your decor with Christmas. Do not just focus on the table centerpiece or the mantel. A chandelier is tailor-made for draping, swagging, ornamenting and otherwise adorning from the center of this season.
Dreaming of a Red Christmas
Holly berries are poisonous, so enjoy them securely when they are perched high up on a chandelier, vibrant and seasonal but out of reach. Make mini-wreaths of holly berries, actual holly leaves and crimson satin holly leaves around each bobeche on the chandelier — which small saucer that functions as a drip pan beneath a real candle however is vestigial and decorative in a wired chandelier. Garland the arms of this chandelier with strings of metallic red beads, draping them to deep swags between the arms. Hang a shiny red ornament from the low point of this curve in each arm tie the ornaments to the arms with thin red satin ribbon or use clear fishing line. Add a bit extra with a cluster of holly berries and crimson leaves perched on top of each red Christmas ball.
Ornamental Extravagance
Create a glittering bauble chandelier from any ceiling hook, ribbons and Christmas ornaments. Adapt dimensions for your own space, but cut ribbons in finished lengths with a 2-inch gap per tier. Start with 16 ornaments and two pieces of ribbon approximately 3 feet long. Tie a ribbon to the end of an ornament; trim four more ribbons 2 inches shorter and tie them to ornaments. Continue until you run out of ornaments, creating tiers which will fall in an upside-down tree form. Collect the loose ends of the grasses, knot them together and tie them to the ceiling hook. Arrange the ornaments and ribbons so they aren’t bunched or tangled. A spotlight shining on a bauble chandelier at nighttime is a decorative holiday touch to peek through a window.
Cookie Monster Christmas
Bake a batch of cut-out cookie dough Christmas cookies and, before popping them in the oven sparkly with colored sanding apples, poke a hole in the surface of each one with the horizontal end of an unsharpened pencil. Once the stars, angels, reindeer, Santas and Christmas trees trendy, thread them with loops of bright red holiday ribbon — cut to various lengths — and then hang them from the arms of a low-hanging chandelier. Hook candy canes over the chandelier arms as well for a help-yourself shiny vacation treat. If the chandelier hangs over the dining table, then put a tree-shaped, three-tier dessert stand directly under the light with frosted cupcakes, “snow-sugar” dusted brownies, more cookies and other sugar plums.
Tinsel and Tradition
Wrap a chandelier in live green garlands, snaking down the wire or chain from the ceiling and wrap round the arms. A braided garland with pine, fir, cedar and boxwood smells like the season and is more visually appealing than just evergreen branches. When the greenery is wound around the baluster and arms, then add long curls of wide holiday ribbon in greens, browns and gold, twining round the boxwood and evergreens. Push ornament hangers to the tops of pine cones and hang a few from the garland. Sizes fake snow on the pine cones prior to hanging to lighten them with some sparkle and curtain a tiny silver tinsel near the pine cones for extra bling. Hang a fat sprig of mistletoe from the finial at the base of the chandelier. If your light works on dimmers, leaving the chandelier stale in a low setting will keep the greens from drying out so that they last through New Year’s.